Portraits in red
Uillinn Dance Season 2026

Portraits in red | Wanjiru Kamuyu | WKcollective

Tuesday 6 October at 6.30pm | 35 min performance and 30min post show discussion

Tickets available to purchase here.

Portraits in red investigates and explores the idea of the dominant standard of beauty and puts in question the image of the body. The dominance of the European and US beauty and fashion industries’ capitalization and globalization of a homogenized standard of beauty is the springboard for the work’s research.

Being born into a bi-cultural home (Kenya/USA) and having lived on three continents (Africa, North America and Europe), Wanjiru Kamuyu continues to be intrigued by each society’s general relationship to the notion of beauty and the provocation that arise around the image of the body. Based on the 2013 reconstruction of a 2005 solo, Spiral, she decided to revisit the idea in collaboration with the artistic expertise of choreographer and dramaturge Robyn Orlin.

Her intrigue with the notion and definition of beauty coupled with the historical and current pervasive objectification and exotification of the human body, particularly female, serve as the points of inquiry into the work.

Portraits in red examines conflicting ideas, issues and challenges identified with the politics of the body such as dominance, oppression, assimilation, objectification and exotification. This is propelled by an ingrained need to adapt and assimilate into a Western culturally, racially and socially biased mold of what connotes beauty.

Portraits in red is a universal narrative that is bold, brave and uncompromising in its mission.

“Kenyan Wanjiru Kamuyu, with an already forged international career, including the USA, attracted a small public triumph, in a spiral of a solo, stirring a gigantic piece of fabric at times like a prosthetic mingled to her own hair, to straps of her dress, to her partial nudity, in a sacral and incarnated journey of metamorphic tenacity. This power of soloist conviction well echoes the festival’s opening by Germaine Acogny in “Elue noire” choreographed by Olivier Dubois.” Gérard Mayen, Danser Canal Historique.

This programme is proudly presented by the Regional Dance Network — Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, Dance Limerick, Tipperary Dance, and Dance Cork Firkin Crane. As part of the tour, audiences are invited to experience additional award winning work by the visiting artist, Wanjiru Kamuyu , ‘An Immigrant’s Story’, at one of our partner venues. Enjoy a 10% discount on tickets as our way of welcoming you to explore more of the artists’ work and her powerful storytelling.

CREDITS
Choreography & performance | Wanjiru Kamuyu
Dramaturgy | Robyn Orlin
Music (composition) | Nate May
Music (arrangements) | LACRYMOBOY
Costume conception | Robyn Orlin
Costume execution | Birgit Neppl
Lighting design | Cyril Mulon

BIOGRAPHY
New York City Dance and Performance Bessies Award winner Wanjiru Kamuyu, born in Nairobi/Kenya, obtained a Master of Fine Arts at Temple University (Philadelphia, USA). Based in Paris since 2007, she started her career in New York with such notable dance companies as Urban Bush Women and Molissa Fenley and Company.

As a dancer, she developed a rich and diverse background that fostered her choreographic development and teaching. Between New York and Paris, on international stages, she has worked with contemporary choreographers including Jawole Willa Jo Zollar/Urban Bush Women, Bill T. Jones, Irène Tassembedo, RobynOrlin, Nathalie Pubellier, Stefanie Batten Bland, Bartabas, Dean Moss, Emmanul Eggermont, Anne Collod and more. Kamuyu collaborated with Jérôme Savary (À la recherche de Joséphine), Bill T. Jones (Broadway show FELA!) as well as the film director Christian Faure (Fais danser la poussière) and visual artist Jean-Paul Goude.

She was in the original cast of the Paris Production of Julie Taymor’s Broadway show, The Lion King. Since 2017, Kamuyu has created four major works (two solos and two trios) plus adaptations for alternative spaces and young audiences. Additionally, in 2020 she created her first dance film, La visite, directed by Tommy Pascal. Her works have been internationally acclaimed in the USA, Europe, Africa and Asia.

Kamuyu has also worked as a choreographer with directors Jérôme Savary (France), Hassane Kassi Kouyaté (Burkina Faso), Jean-François Auguste (France); several US based universities; dance company InkBoat (USA) and has developed projects for refugees with New World Theatre (USA) and Euroculture. Additionally, she has also served as artistic consultant for choreographer Bintou Dembele’s (France) work, Z.H.

Kamuyu teaches workshops in Europe, North America, Asia and Africa. Kamuyu’s company, WKcollective, is an associate company with the creative agency camin aktion (Mont pellier). For seasons 2023-25, Wanjiru Kamuyu was associate artist at the National Choreographic Center, CCN Nantes. As a 2023 artist in residence with the Villa Albertine, Kamuyu continues to receive their support in touring her work in the US. She was also a Live Feed Artist with New York Live Arts for seasons 2023/24 and 2024/25. From 2020/21 through 2023/24, she was associate artist with L’Onde Théâtre Centre d’Art, Scène Conventionnée d’Intérêt National – Art et Création pour la Danse (Vélizy,France).

Jean-Philippe Barrios a.k.a. LACRYMOBOY (Composer & Sound Engineer), is a French composer, musician, and performer with over 30 years of groundbreaking work, creating more than 80 original sound scores—mainly for contemporary dance. Renowned for his rich, immersive soundscapes, he collaborates with acclaimed French dance companies such as Wang/Ramirez, Warren/RIFT, WKcollective and internationally with Brodas Bros, In-Motus, Ezdanza, Cedar Lake and Hubbard Street. His music has resonated through prestigious venues such as Théâtre de la Ville, Théâtre Chaillot, Sadler’s Wells, and the Gerald Lynch Theater.

In recent years, LACRYMOBOY has expanded into acclaimed documentary soundtracks, including César, Sculpteur compressé (TV Arte/Centre Pompidou) and Charlotte Perriand (TV Arte/Louis Vuitton Foundation), which was part of the Official Selection 2020 of the 38th FIFA and won the 2021 Archi Awards – FIFAAC. His work for the digital series Beard Club was the most awarded independent French web series of 2016. In 2019, LACRYMOBOY won Best Music at the Berlin Underground Festival. His digital discography captures this rich, eclectic journey.

https://wkcollective.org/touring-repertory/portraits-in-red/

The WKcollective Ireland tour is supported by the Institut Français and Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations’ program, Mouvements.

Presented in association with the French Embassy in Ireland.